Where did June go?

and I can't think of what I've achieved this month.

Work wise, the client work continues, I've had a quiet week this week - after getting new tyres on the car, they were needed, the shuddering in the back wheel continued. It turned out to be a problem in the differential, but it took days, and a replacement vehicle seemed "too hard" to organise so I made a decision to just stay home this week. It's been an excellent time to catch up with case notes, following up, and generally catching up on paper work. I've also been trying to finish work sometime in the afternoon and taking time to relax, to read, to bake and to do some stitching.

I've been knitting scarves and beanies for the kids in Canberra - such cold it hard to imagine.
Dan, and a friend, also Dan, tells me they are planning on doing a workshop with disadvantaged kids in Darwin round street art (graffitti) and hip-hop music. I'm sure this will be a unique experiance for them all.

I guess the biggest thing for me is I've decided it's time for change! Scarey stuff - and though I'd ideally like round 12 acres on the Atherton Tablelands with rainforest, an orchard, and a magical garden, realism tells me that at my age and with my finances, this isn't going to happen! So I looked at what was most important to me - and it's family. The northern NSW coast is appealing and fits better with being closer to the kids and to Mum too. Looking at what I can realistically afford, I'm even exploring the idea of a retirement village. When did I get that old!

So I guess lots of change - time to see what the next part of my life holds?

Did I get this right?

when I was driving home on friday night, about 40km out of Isa, it was just dusk, not quite dull enough to be needing to put my lights on and I noticed an animal in the road ahead, it's smaller than a cow? not the right shape for a roo? I slowed ( I was doing about 110kph) and it just stayed in the road, I kept slowing, not a dog, not a fox..... it moved to the side of the road but kept turned towards me, I was just rolling as I passed it. And it sure looked like a dingo ( this is not my photo )

I've seen dingos in sanctuaries and on Fraser Island but never out here before. Discussing this with a friend he suggested it may be a dingo - there's lots of open land between here and Alice Springs and the lack of a wet season this year may have them extending their territory - or maybe I'd just never seen one here before.

I love the continual new experiances this area gives.

My daily stuff, work, travel, quilting and I'm creating family history albums with scrapbooking.



I took this photo as I was coming back into Mt Isa early Friday evening. I'm about 30km out and about to cross the Leichart River. It had been 30 deg for most of the day - I'd run out of t-shirts as I'd only packed 3, I'd packed more long sleeved t-shirts and jumpers, even a hot water bottle and I'd not really needed them at all. This is winter?

My quilting continues between knitting beanies for Ben, Jess and Dan. I'm up to hand-quilting Mum's quilt - for her birthday. She got a WIP - work in progress. and this is my last contribution to my internet swaps - tea cup and saucer. Today I've pieced more of Jess's Japanese quilt - but my machine is not well. I think old age is settling in- I think it's about 34 years old now. It sews well, with it's two stitches but it is clunking and grinding and making some very strange noises.

I've finally found someone to replace my front steps, so financially this isn't the best time for it to want to retire to a quieter life.



Spending even a short time with Annie is so inspirational, she is very involved with stamping and scrapbooking. I'll look up her website and add it later. I've added three examples of what I've been doing - there's a page for my maternal grandparents before they got married. When I was with Mum we went through the older photos and I had them copied. The second page is Christmas 1953 - I was about 4 years old, then one for Jess - her first dress up party she was about 10 weeks old. I have a variety of albums on the go - Family History, my history, and one for each of my kids based on their childhood. So many photos and so many memories. I try to complete about 3 pages each weekend, but I doubt I'll catch up.

It's been awhile.

I've been on leave - I took about 3 weeks to go down to Canberra, to catch up with the kids but also to join the family celebration for my Mum's 80th Birthday. The party just kept on going.

The actual celebration was attended by almost all the family and we've grown into quite a mob, as we go into the next generation.

We had a great "grazing" lunch at Pods in Pelligo. The food was great, the company was excellent, and everyone mixed and talked and tried to catch up.

This is the five of us with Mum, my brothers

John ( on the left) and Peter, my sisters - Linda (the baby of the family on the left) and Annie (on the right). It's not very often we manage to get together these days.

John and his family live in Melbourne, Pete and his partner live in Newcastle, Annie and Lin live in Canberra, Mum lives on the Gold Coast and I'm in Mt Isa. We cover almost the whole east coast of Australia.

The next photos cover the in-laws and Mum's sister Judy, and then there's the mob, which includes most of the 17 grandchildren, their partners and four great-grandchildren.

Mum had a second party last weekend for her

friends and family that couldn't come to Canberra.